Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Sells 551 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,716 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 551 shares during the quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,071,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,046,000 after purchasing an additional 16,078 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 6,609 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,844,000 after purchasing an additional 998 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 74,441 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $20,775,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth $647,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $305.76 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $240.97 and a 12-month high of $309.00. The stock has a market cap of $557.19 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $282.69 and a 200-day moving average of $274.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.